Bodies: A Digital Companion

Walking: Introduction and Contents

"Walking...is how the body measures itself against the earth." - Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

 

A baby's first steps, hiking Mt. Mansfield, a protest march, and Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind all have in common the act of walking. It seems so simple and natural, which may be why the cultural significance of walking is often ignored. Dr. Wright's focus section "Bodies: Walking" will consider why we walk, and how the cultural history of walking intersects with our understanding of bodies in the past and present.

The simple act of walking is one of the primary ways we, as humans, come to know our own bodies. It is also how we come to know our communities and environments, the followed and unfollowed paths that become the worlds we inhabit. As you will discover, our class on walking will ask you to reconsider the meaning of place. Landscapes are made and remade through our bodies walking within them.

"Bodies: Walking" (click on link to access the syllabus on Google Docs) begins by examining the w
alk as embodied experience. We will focus on the connection between walking and key concepts central to understanding the body: mind-body dualism, embodiment, intersectionality, physical difference, cultural norm, and stigma. We will consider these five key concepts in relation to both the art and technology of walking. We will dig into the historical contexts of walking by looking at the pilgrimage, the nature walk, and walking the city. We will also examine walking practices in the late 20th and early 21st century with an eye - or foot?! - towards understanding the power dynamics that enable certain bodies to walk freely, to occupy certain spaces, or to control the paths they take, while others cannot. We will do several experiential workshops like making a walking map of Champlain College's campus, going on a Haiku walk, wandering through the woods, and brainstorming about possible walking-based video games and apps. You will work in groups to make your own narrative walking map using your own phenomenological research as a starting point.

Required materials include a copy of Cheryl Strayed's Wild, access to a smartphone, and a good pair of walking shoes! The remainder of your required readings/screenings are available as content links to this page. Check out the syllabus for specific due dates.

 

This page has paths:

  1. Walking Katheryn Wright

Contents of this path:

  1. Why the Body?
  2. Rebecca Solnit, Ch. 1 "Tracing a Headland: An Introduction" from Wanderlust
  3. Mind-Body Dualism
  4. The Body Project
  5. Popova, "The Spirit of Sauntering: Thoreau on the Art of Walking and the Perils of a Sedentary Life"
  6. Henry David Thoreau, "Walking" (abbreviated version)
  7. Anne Friedberg, "The Mobilized and Virtual Gaze in Modernity: Flâneur/Flâneuse” from Window Shopping
  8. Examined Life - Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor
  9. Guy Debord, “Theory of the Dérive” (1956)
  10. Wrights & Sites, "A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture" (2005)
  11. Rachel Kolb, "The Deaf Body in Public Space" (2016)
  12. Fred Kent, "Fear, Isolation, and Public Space" (2004)
  13. Anita Sarkeesian, "Link Round Up: Feminist Critiques of SlutWalk."
  14. Kayla Renee Parker, "Black Women vs. White Men in Public Spaces: A Crosswalk Experiment and Relevance" (2017)
  15. Embodiment
  16. Cultural Norm
  17. Bodily Difference
  18. Stigma
  19. Intersectionality
  20. Kwang Hyun Ko, "Origins of Bipedalism" (2015)
  21. Vineyard, How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live, Ch. 3-4 (2007)
  22. WALK AGAIN PROJECT - World Cup 2014
  23. Walk Again Project reports first clinical results
  24. Latest results by the Walk Again Project
  25. Alexandra Horowitz, "A Dog's-Nose View" from On Looking (2013)
  26. Donna Haraway, "The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness" (2003)
  27. Latcho Drom
  28. Camino De Santiago
  29. Hajj 2019

Contents of this tag:

  1. Tom Shakespeare, "The Social Model of Disability" (2006)
  2. Kenny Cupers, "Walking as DIY Urbanism" (2004)
  3. Charles Henry Alston, "Walking" (1958)
  4. Walter Benjamin, "The Flaneur"
  5. Erin Wayman, "Becoming Human: The Evolution of Walking Upright" (2012)
  6. Joseph Amato, On Foot (2004)
  7. Historical Body Mechanics: Walk Medieval!
  8. Michel Foucault, "Docile Bodies" in The Foucault Reader (1991)
  9. Walking Artists Network
  10. Bobby Seal, "Baudelaire, Benjamin and the Birth of the Flâneur" (2013)
  11. Le Flâneur: Benjamins Shadow
  12. Michel Foucault "Disciplinary Power: Panopticism"
  13. Karen Offen, "The History of Feminism is a Political History" (2011)
  14. Macat Analysis of Foucault's Discipline and Punish
  15. Hamish Fulton Kent Walk series (2009-2010)
  16. Judith Butler, "Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street" in eipcp, 2011
  17. The Ten List: Walk as Art
  18. Augusto Boal, Games for Actors and Non-Actors (1992)
  19. Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2001)
  20. Rachel Jones, "Art Review: 'Interpose,' New City Galerie" (2017)